Harvard HouseZero Project Requires No HVAC or Daytime Electric Light

From PR Newswire – The Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) announced today that it is retrofitting its headquarters in a pre-1940s stick-built house to demonstrate how to transform this challenging building stock into a prototype of ultra-efficiency that will use no HVAC system, no electric light use during the day, 100% ventilation, almost zero energy, and produce zero carbon emissions, including embodied energy of materials. The full press release gives much further detail on the project – House on Harvard Campus Undergoes Extreme Retrofit.

While the project is expected to take from 7 to 9 months it is hoped that there will be progress reports along the way so that the general public can learn and watch what they are doing. Harvard has been at the forefront of addressing climate change and the environment. It was one of the first schools to divest from fossil fuels.